


A half lived life

by Areiton



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: BAMF Stiles, Bottom Derek Hale, Derek Hale Deserves Nice Things, First Kiss, Future Fic, Growing Up, M/M, Monster of the Week, POV Derek, Pining, Protective Derek, Protective Stiles, becoming adults, or something like it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-14
Updated: 2017-11-14
Packaged: 2019-02-02 06:23:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12721302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Areiton/pseuds/Areiton
Summary: The others miss things too. It’s not only Stiles who misses weddings and classes, who leads a half-lived life because of the supernatural shitstorm that is their world.But somehow, it’s always Stiles who comes to him, when the chips are down and Derek’s back is against the wall.





	A half lived life

He misses graduation. 

His diploma shows up at his Dad's house two days before he gets discharged from the hospital--running in with a bat to take down a harpy pack isn't a good way to make it to pomp and circumstance. 

He doesn't mind but Derek does, feels it itching under his skin like a taunt. 

_ We saved those kids, Derek. It doesn't matter.  _

Except it does, it  _ does _ , he was in surgery--he  _ flatlined _ \--when he should have been celebrating. 

Stiles shakes his head, grins and directs him mercilessly about hanging the damn thing up. 

~*~ 

It’s not the first thing he’s missed. There was the game he’d missed, when he fought at Derek’s side against his crazy uncle. When he missed half the dance, trying to stop the same crazy uncle. 

The blown shot with Lydia, holding him up in a pool while death stalked them. 

Stiles has made a habit of missing the things he should be doing, to save his ass, and others. 

Derek doesn’t  _ understand _ it. 

~*~

He misses the first week of college hiding with Derek from hunters. 

He misses his third date with Nathan when a rouge omega kidnapped him. 

He misses his finals dealing with a skulk of kitsune intent on taking Kira with them to Japan. 

Every time, it bothers Derek, and Stiles grins and shrugs it off, cleans up the supernatural mess and slides back into the life he’s half-missing, leaves Derek wondering why he’s the only one who sees that Stiles is giving too much. 

~*~

“You shouldn’t be here,” Derek bites out. There’s an interview, for an internship that Stiles has been talking about for months, in an hour, and if Derek knows anything about hunters and their shit, he knows this will take longer than an hour. 

Stiles grins at him, twirls his bat and nods. “We gonna get it done?” 

They go, and hammer out an alliance that keeps a new pack in southeast Oregon--a pack with five pups--safe. 

Stiles falls asleep on the drive home, smelling content and happy. A girl gets the internship and Stiles works at the Sheriff’s office for the summer. 

~*~

His boyfriend of six months breaks up with him when he misses their anniversary--a fucking  _ dragon _ . 

Lydia threatens to carve his guts out if he’s not at her side when she gets married, and he makes it, by the skin of his teeth, sliding into his spot in a slightly rumpled tux and blood still caked under his nails. Derek waits in the back--he still reeks of troll guts--and they show up late for the reception, but clean. 

He misses enough classes his junior year of college that he flunks out of three classes, while they deal with a bout of demon possession, until he can chant exorcisms in his sleep and carries salt the way men his age carry condoms and lube. 

Derek tries to get him to stay behind and Stiles smacks him in the shoulder and drags him headlong into the supernatural. 

~*~

They save each other, over and over and over, and they save other people, because that’s what it’s all about, keeping Beacon Hills safe, keeping other, vulnerable, packs safe. 

He tries to listen when Stiles tells him that, tries not to wonder how much of Stiles’ life Stiles will be absent for before he says it’s too much and leaves Derek, the way so many in the past have before him. 

~*~

The others miss things too. It’s not  _ only _ Stiles who misses weddings and classes, who leads a half-lived life because of the supernatural shitstorm that is their world. 

But somehow, it’s always Stiles who comes to him, when the chips are down and Derek’s back is against the wall. It’s Stiles who drags him out of danger and takes it, to spare Derek. It’s Stiles who shows up, after the dust has settled. When the others drift away and Derek is alone, it’s Stiles who comes with beer and quiet company, Stiles who sleeps on the couch when Derek can’t stand to be alone, Stiles who is furious and sad and  _ there. _

Derek never asks what he’s missing, in those moments. He can’t bear to ask, can’t bear to give this up. 

~*~ 

There are some things he refuses to miss. 

Scott’s graduation from vet school. 

Lydia being awarded the Clay Research Award. 

His father’s wedding. 

The birth of Kira’s first child, a little girl named Sienna who Stiles refused to touch for three days after coming straight to the hospital from battling a pack of pixies with a mischievous streak. 

He never missed Derek’s birthday, always crashed into Derek’s apartment or loft or house in the early hours of the day, and dragged him out to be a person, as Stiles put it. 

He didn’t miss the anniversary of the fire, either. 

Stiles missed a lot, but he never missed the really important things. 

~*~

He stops dating, and the others drift away, busy with their lives and their families and Derek waits for Stiles to follow them, to do what he’s always known Stiles would do. 

He waits for Stiles to leave him. 

But he keeps calling, with monster of the week research, and dinner plans, when they’re not fighting for their lives. 

It doesn’t make any sense. 

Stiles has never made any sense.

~*~ 

When he kisses Derek, one quiet full moon while the pack runs through the preserve and Derek sits near Stiles, propped against the Nemeton, it feels familiar and inevitable and impossible and new. 

“Why?” Derek whispers, later, in his bed, while Stiles presses his fingers into the wet come between his legs, pushing it back in with a satisfied little noise, and Stiles shrugs. Presses a kiss into Derek’s neck. 

“You’re where I want to be,” he says, simply, and Derek--finally--allows himself to believe. 

~*~

Maybe it wasn’t Stiles missing things. 

Maybe it was never a half lived life. 

He thinks that, sometimes, when they’re researching, when they’re dropping into their friend’s lives and hearing about what they missed. 

When Stiles is fucking him, his voice steady and dirty and grounding in his ear. 

Maybe this was always just the life he wanted. 

Maybe he figured it out years ago, and Derek was just really fucking slow on the uptake. 

~*~

Stiles moves into his apartment, into his life, into his bed and nothing changes, and everything changes. 

He misses his first day of work chasing an omega out of their territory and their first anniversary, they spend purifying a house of it’s ghosts, and he gets to Sienna’s birthday party late, smiling at his goddaughter’s scowl with apology in his eyes and blood still on his knuckles and Derek doesn’t bother, anymore, trying to get him to stop. To live. 

Stiles lives a fuller life than anyone he’s ever known. 

~*~

He misses things, and it bothers Derek, until he realizes, Stiles has never missed anything. He’s always right where  _ he _ chose to be, in danger and peace and Derek’s life. 

And because of Stiles, Derek is learning to live with the same kind of reckless freedom. 


End file.
